This invention is directed towards the provision of photo-finishing goods and/or services. In particular the invention relates to a method of providing assurance that a particular photo-finishing process has been used.
Manufacturers of photographic equipment and supplies, such as Eastman Kodak Company, license their brand name to retail and wholesale photo-finishing sites. A retail photo-finishing site has on-site equipment, such as a mini-lab, to locally produce photo-finishing services directly to a consumer. A wholesale photo-finishing site receives photo-finishing orders from a plurality of distributed outlets which do not have their own on site photo-finishing equipment.
In order to protect the brand name it is important that the level of quality is controlled.
The quality of photographic prints is extremely important to the consumer. Photographs are often treasured possessions, holding memories of important events to the consumer. Taking in exposed film for developing and ending up with poor quality prints can be very upsetting for the consumer, especially if the pictures taken were of a one off event which cannot be repeated. It is important that the retailers entrusted with developing the prints are seen to provide consistently high quality results. If the prints are not of a good quality they will lose custom. One of the important elements of the processing of photographic prints is the quality of the photochemicals used in the development process. If the chemicals are not of a good quality the resulting prints will not be satisfactory regardless of whether or not good quality photographic paper is used. At the moment there is no way that a consumer can know what process and which chemicals are used. There is therefore no way for a consumer to choose a retailer on this basis and it is a matter of trial and error to find a retailer that can provide consistently good quality prints.
It is an aim of the invention to provide a method of providing assurance that a consistently high quality of prints can be produced by the retailer. The invention provides information relating to the process chemistry used. The invention provides a method of identifying that a particular brand of process chemistry has been used in the development of the photographic prints.
According to the present invention there is provided a method of identifying whether a particular brand of photochemical has been used in the processing of photographic prints by providing information relating to the process chemistry on the back of the prints.
The invention also provides a method of providing assurance as to the quality of photographic prints by ensuring that a particular brand of processing chemistry has been used in the development of the prints.
The invention further provides a method of advertising a brand of photochemicals by identifying the brand on the back of photographic prints that have been processed using that brand of photochemicals.
The invention yet further provides a method of supplying a photofinishing order including the steps of accepting an order from a consumer, developing the order, printing the order and returning the order to the consumer, wherein the step of printing further includes printing an identifiable indication of the brand of photochemicals used on the back of the photofinishing order.
The invention yet further provides a method of supplying a photofinishing order including the steps of accepting an order from a consumer, developing the order, printing the order and returning the order to the consumer, wherein the order is printed on photographic paper the reverse side of which has been pre-printed with an identifiable indication of the brand of photochemicals used in the development process.
The invention yet further provides a photo-processing apparatus for processing photographic material, the apparatus being adapted to print information regarding the chemicals used in the process on the reverse of the final photographic print.
At the present time there is no way by which a consumer can know which brand of process chemistry has been used in the processing of his or her prints. The present invention provides this knowledge. The consumer may then take their prints to a photofinisher whom they know will be using the brand of process chemistry which gives good quality results. Hence the quality of the prints will be guaranteed. This can provide significant advantages to the photofinisher who can attract more consumers and to the proprietor of the process chemistry who can sell more photochemicals.